Hello and welcome to PBS39d WLVT.

Community update on coronavirus.

It's presented by Capital e Cross and brought to you wh help from our community par Lehigh Valley Health Netwo.

We're coming to you live fm the Public Media Center and Bethlehem.

I'm Gen. Ortega, our guest today ine the director of emergency preparedness at Lehigh Valy Health Network.

and their fans to Coca-Cola Park and Allentown.

Our guests will be with usa moment.

If you have a question, yon give us call.

The number is four eight fr eight two one zero zero zeo eight.

Wel answer some of your questions.

Five plus four coronavirus updates.

Be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

You can do that at our web.

Coronavirus Lehigh Valley .

You can find helpful information in both Englisd Spanish.

Now let's take a look at today's top headlines.

The State Department of Heh today reported provider hae administered more than 6 million vaccine doses to d, just over 35% of eligible adults in Pennsylvania have received at least a first , according to the state.

Pennsylvaniaanks six among states for total doses givn 5000 new coronavirus casesd 35 more deaths were reportd statewide.

Elsewhere, World health officials say a surgeon vis cases and deaths is hittinl regions of the globe.

The increase in infections hospitalized patients and deaths is happening even in countries where vaccination efforts have gained moment.

The World Health Organizatn says the activity is drivey new virus variants and tooy nations coming out of lockn too soon.

Allentown is expanding its vaccine call center to asst Lehigh County seniors and w food industry workers, including restaurant emplo, grocery and food workers be eligible for vaccines on Mh 31.

At the call center is openo Allentown and Lehigh County residents ages 55 and up ad now food industry workers o live or work in the countyd have difficulty schedulinga vaccine appointment online.

The number of six one zero eight nine zero seven zerox nine it's open nine pm to m Monday throughriday.

The call center number agas six one zero eight nine zeo seven zero six ne.

Let's meet our guests.

Ryan Hay is director of Emergency Preparedness at Lehigh Valley Health Netwo.

Also here is Mike Antalya, media relations manager foe Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs whe set to welcome back fans nt month.

Thank you both for being h. Mike will be with you in ja few minutes.

We're going to begin todayh Ryan.

Hey, Ryan.

I would imagine that even n the best of times, workinga director of emergency preparedness for a health network can be a stressfulb and doing it in a global pc health crisis must take ito the next level.

Tell us little bit about r job and what it entails.

Let's start there.

So thank you for having med thanks for having me.

I mean, this presentation,I think it's a phenomenal opportunity.

The community from my perspective, I'm in chargef preparedness and really nek operational and clinical resiliency of the hospital.

So I have a fancy way of sg regardless of what's goingn in the community, whether s an external event, whethers an internal event, we wanto make sure we continue to ce for our patients and care r our community members.

So that can range from anyg from snow planning, floods, hazardous weather, hazardos materials, events, McAdoo incidents, terrorism event.

We kind of run the gamut ad take an approach of full community support, which ms that we don't only want to support the health networkt also support the community where we can.

Now part of your job is overseeing the mobile vaccination unit.

What do they do Gamma Great question.

Thank you.

Our mobile vaccine team isa team of essentially parames and registered nurses who o out to the community wheree target areas that are a vulnerable populatns that y not be able to get into onf the established site locat, be not able to get to one f the driver locations.

So the mobile team will taa team of registered nurses d paramedics to a site, perhs senior center on some cases skilled nursing facilities, personal care homes, commuy centers and try to target population that otherwise wouldn't be able to get the vaccine.

So we're really working vey closely with our community health partners, working closely with our network innovation team, identify e sites to leverage some of e partnerships we have with e community and in order to really kind of get to those folks on one of the non Enh speaking one.

They don't have transportan low socioeconomic status aa wide variety of different reasons why they might note able to get back to you otherwise.

Now, how did this unit come about?

Did exist in any capacity before the pandemic?

Great question.

Did not.

So we actually kind of hado pivot quite a bit.

I know everyone's been usig that word frequently in 20d 21, but we shipped it a lie bit in January when we saw there was a need for skilld nursing facilities to get vaccinated quicker.

And we were seeing that, yu know, to no fault of anyboy really that the Pen Argyl pharmacy programs weren't e to keep up with some of the demand.

So we figured we could sted we partnered with Toyota wo provided very Greg Schultz Lehigh the facts of the Joe Biden family Birdsboro Bloomsbury with finance provided three vehicles are able to take our nurses, or paramedics and the vaccine, some of the supplies into e communities.

So we kind of stood from nothing essentially in Jan. And thanks to a great teamf folks that we have here at LVHN, we were able to implt quickly.

I think to date we're wellr 4000 folks that have been Ferdowsi's that have been vaccinated through the pro.

Now, Ryan, we hear a lot fm people who are homebound, people who have wanted the vaccine b can't get i or make an appointment.

So how many people are you reaching with this mobile ?

So so far we've done about0 doses, I believe.

And that's the first and sd kind of combined really the difficulty is in managing e Moderna vaccine and the Pfr vaccine.

So they have some handling requirements that are a lie bit unique that prevents us from having essentially beg able to go to the homebound population one by one.

We've done some trials ande Frkville for Meals on Whees partners and some others in Area to try to get to somef those homebound areas and e of those homebou patients th can't otherwise get outf the houses.

And really the struggle the run into is really the hang requirement and making sure that we don't run out of to right out of the vaccine an expired.

So we do have that kind of strict timeline that we hao follow once we drop medican has to be administered in o many hours and going houseo house waiting the waiting e in between makes a little t of coffee of the home outpatients.

However, we are planning actively for when we get Johnson & Johnson vaccine Helgason to be ablto reach those populations.

It's a little bit easier a vaccine to handle just a le more flexibility Hopefull the ability to rey start to get into the Hellertown population once that's made available.

Can you tell us what the me clinic will do after vaccis have been delivered to mos?

Yeah, so I think the goal really is to then try to rh out to those communities ad those who are hesitant abot getting the vaccine.

You know, the goal of the vaccine program isn't necessarily the quantity bt rather the quality of patis who want to make sure that we're able to reach all th.

And I think some folks reay want to be vaccinated in ps that are familiar to them.

And as the weeks and montho by and we start to reach gs that made me on the fence t getting the vaccine, we haa plan to work with some of r physician colleagues, our nursing colleagues, some or education colleagues to rey work with the community partners, work with the trd agents that we've kind of e partnerships with the commy and be able to get some oft education and potentially e educational events or other events where we can educate population about the vaccie and also do some vaccinatit the same time.

It's very theoretical righw because we're really just waiting for thatime on the demand starts to the decrea bit and we start to reallye to work hard to get into t communitie that are hesitat about getting vaccinated.

I get that now.

Did you play a role in the drive through clinics?

Yeah.

So our team supports infecn control team, which is a phenomenal team rationals.

We've been doing drive thrh flu vaccine clinics for des and the emergency prepareds team supports them with soe logistics and all of their sites on the Dorney Park s. The Northampton Community Colleg sites, as well as te of Pocono Raceway.

And we're happy to have a t team of Pocono as well as a team.

O'Dorney from years of flu vaccine clinics, O'Dorney m years of medical support at Pocono Raceway.

So these are great fits, prospering fits for the commity, especially Mone County Roger Stone lookingr drive vaccine opportunitie.

Now the mass clinics have seemed to go smoothly so f. So let me ask you this.

What all goes into planning something like that Gamma s a great question leading uo a flu vaccine clinic typicy we have three or four montf preparation and planning meetings, a lot of committs meeting to make sure that l the districts line and reay be accelerated.

That's what I'm doing to de clinics a year to drive thh vaccine clinics so that the acceleration has been phenomenal.

And really a lot of the planning comes down to a tm that really has understande process, is able to pivot quickly, make changes basen the Covid vaccines.

It's a little bit different than the flu vaccine clinis since preregister require d folks are required to regir before they show up, therea little bit of a change, but we've been able to to make those changes in real time.

We learn from every singleu Sputnik Covid vaccine clinc that we do and I think a te lessons learned to really p us accelerate the pace at h are able to provide the vaccines.

Ryan, we have a caller question.

Wanita from Fountain Hill , how do you get this ut to come to me?

No.

So it's a great question rt now.

The US is really looking at essentially going to senior centers, going to community centers, working with the community partners to stanp larger scale clinics.

And the reason that we cano to one clinic, we can vacce anywhere from 50 to 300 pee at a clinic in about a sixr period.

But if we were to go door o door, it would take about o 25 minutes per patient sine have to 15 minutes after vaccinations to make sure there's no reaction.

And really it just becomesa scalability issue and tryio go door to door and we rune risk of having vaccine expe before we're able to use i.

Also what we've been doings focusing on community cent.

If there's a community cenr out there, there's a certan population of folks, whethr it's church based, whethers nonprofit based, we tryingo work with them to to host smaller clinics in the community, Tatamy, Fountain Hill, Bernville, where thes an opportunity to bring mae 50 or so community folks together and vaccinate thel at once.

It provides a little bit oa different scalable and lets make sure that we don't rut vaccine or have any sort f vaccine.

Inspire is unfortunate, fortunately, something we really d't want to ever do.

That's actually something t I want to get back to.

Ryan, going back to mass clinics, I understand thatt all appointments for Wednes Pocono mass clinic were us.

Not all the vaccines.

So what happens to those ds Gamma So we take a very conservative approach towad drawing up doses of the dos are kept in cold storage ad are kept the proper temperatures.

And obviously at the beging of a clinic draw up doses e there's quite a bit of demd and folks are coming.

But as you move through the day, our pharmacy really ks a very close eye on what or use is and ensure they dont draw up more doses that are needed.

So when we get to the end f the clinic in the last coue of cars are coming through, we're really drawing up doy those to make sure that no doses are wasted.

And if for some reason we e a spare dose or two, typicy the clinics run are schedud in time frame that we're ae to then pivot those doses e of our site clinics and ene that they'll use their to prevent.

And so the vaccine expired.

OK, let's talk about workig emergency management durina pandemic.

Is it any different now Gaa Are more manageable now tht we've been doing this forvr a year n?

It's definitely different.

The old adage of emergency preparedness on a large sce incident.

Everyone comes together ina big room like a war room yu see on the movies and evere kind of manages the problem when the problem is a year plus.

That's really not so.

We've definitely flexed and changed our plans quite a .

I think we're much better t virtual planning.

We're much better Bernville coordination.

We're on meeting right nowh you and I think that showsw great of a job we can do ae kind of pivoting and making some changes in technologyo our advantage.

So weeally have changeduite a bit with that.

The pace has definitely ben busy.

My wife is in emergency medicine positions, extraordinarily busy as we.

So two of us have really bn going back and forth throut the whole year.

It's definitely been one fr the Bucks, but I think it s done is raise the level awareness for everyone, not only in health care but acs the country related to preparedness and how it's t just something that is post hurricane or post terrorist event, but rather something that can be from a viral et that can have a massive imt on the entire country.

So it's really that whole community approach and definitely made a lot of partnerships.

We leraged a lot of partnerships that we had ie future in the past to makee that we got a good response moving forward.

Now, Ryan, how has the panc affected you or your perspective Gamma Again, another great question.

I think that what it's dons shown the resiliency of heh care workers and really a t of my colleagues and mysel, I'm a nurse by background h an emergency department prr to taking this job and the resiliency of health care workers around this has rey been remarkable, not only m treating tremendous amountf patients during surge, buto losing loved ones, losing family members, losing coworkers to Covid and then continuing to to go back to work every day.

And continuing to do this really I think is a testamt to the resiliency that we'e all developed and really jt kind of a new outlook on le for most of us.

You're chair of the Northet Health Care Coalition.

What are these coalitions d how did they respond to Co?

Another great question alse coalitions are split up by state.

Each state has a set numbef coalitions.

Pennsylvania seven and ther geographic areas that are t to bring together all the stakeholders for emergency preparedness and planning.

So this includes county emergency management Bucks public health, emergency preparedness from health ce networks, nursing homes, pharmacies, really any of e types of health care provir that you have in the commuy all come together with the intent to try to plan regionally for an event.

One of the things that we recognize is that Covid bea great example.

If an event happens at onee or one for one event or one location, it really impacts everybody.

The system in and of itself kind of has these dependens throughout all levels of hh care.

So the goal is really to bg everyone together for regil planning.

And what we've over the lat year is really to share information early on the hh system.

We're calling each other on hourly basis almost as we e starting to see patients.

Roeland was kind of best practices, information sha, trying to gage what facilis might be in worse shape and others when it came to seah and try to balance that ash as possible.

To have a regional approaco best support the community.

So that the coalition realy has been a phenomenal effo, not an opportunity to shart with one of my colleagues m St Luke's Univeal Health St Luke's Univeal HealthNeb Smith.

And it really provides us h the opportunity to help the whole community and reallye a whole community approach toward preparedness.

Now, you said your wife iso an emergency management to people on the front lines f this.

What's that been like?

It's been hectic.

We were lucky enough to wee our second son in February, about a month before Covid.

So we have almost three yer old and a one-year-old at e right now.

It's has been exciting, especially during this tim.

But nevertheless, I think s good to have a good support structure there.

Phenomenal supportive of eh other.

And I tnk we both understan having come from myself, emergency nursing for emery medicine, we kind of underd the flow, understand the stressors that both of us e under.

So it definitely thanks, R, for that conversation.

We continue this community update on coronavirus PBS3.

You can hear the rebroadcan the radio tonight at nine n 91.3 WLVT.

I also invite you to join e next Thursday night at sevs PBS39 preses a special community conversation on vaccines and communities of color.

We'll speak with experts a stakeholders about the effs to close the health equityp for underserved communitie.

Focusing right here on the Lehigh Valley.

Now let's bring on our next guest, Mike Ventilla is the media relations manager foe Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs ans worked as a broadcaster ine Phillies organization for several years.

Next month, the Iron Pigs l welcome fans to CocaCola Pk for the first time in neary two years.

Mike, again, welcome for an organization that thrives crowds, this has to be a lg time coming.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, we've been working hd in preparation for openingy on Tuesday, May 4th.

But what's really kind of l right now is that we're gog to give fans an opportunito speak of what's been happeg here at Coca-Cola Park.

We've been lucky enough foe second straight year to bee alternate.

So you're Coca-Cola Park fr the Philadelphia Phillies.

So we've been able to playt to these extra players sine they were able to come up m Clearwater where they have spring training.

So actually on Saturday, Al 17th, we have tickets avaie for purchase.

If fans do want to come oud watch the Philadelphia Phis play the New York Yankees,e New York Yankees, their alternate site up in Moosi, Pennsylvania, which is thee of the screen Wilkes-Barrel riders.

So for those who are really itching to come out and see some baseball, well, this s the perfect time, especialn light of opening day, whics once again Tuesday, May 4t.

Now effective April 4th.

Governor Wolf allowed outdr venues to operate at 50% mx capacity.

So what's the plan for Coca-Cola Park?

So right now we are lookino work very closely with the work very closely with thee state and also to even Majr League Baseball, just makig sure that we're respectfulf the guidelines that are beg put in place.

But when folks do come in o Coca-Cola Park, they will e what will be seedpods essentially.

So there'll be pods be thee two, three and four that ae socially distant from other types of seating pods.

So if you're a family of f, you'll be able to be comfortable within your for seats.

The folks closest to will e six feet apart.

Outside of that, when folks want to get in line and get want to get in line and geg cheeseburger or whatever in pig food item that is curry available for purchase, yol have to stand six in distae while you're waiting in li.

Well, so we are working ha.

We've been able to put noty with just the social distag guidelines to make sure the hand sanitizer stations all throughout the ballpark and also to the enforcing of Mt wearing the outside of eatg and drinking in your own s. You will have to wear a mat all times while watching a game.

I apprecie you telling the health and safety protocolw many fans do you think youl accommodate in the stadium Gamma You know, it's sometg that is still being workedn right now just in light ofe 50% capacity that's put in place.

You know, we are normally t full capacity, which is a little over ten in which we currently hosting what woue a normal non Covid year or.

But in light of the 50% capacity and the seating idelines that'll be put in place will certainly be a t less than that.

So it also o determines wih how we do with our ticket s that we've been doing greao far.

Fans are really excited tot back to the ballpark.

So, you know, you could get close to hopefully half of that, potentially a littlet less depending on the socil distancing guidelines that we'll have in place.

So but full seating bowl ie main level and of course, n in the upper section, we sl have seats available.

So it's fun.

It's goi to be outside of t having normal hundred perct capacity.

We're still working hard to make sure that we can realy hone in on creating a great experience for all fans whn they come to the ballpark.

Now, with that in mind, any idea as to how many games you'll play or when the sen will end?

So we in light of our seasn had been suspended a month.

We were supposed to actualy originally getting under wn April, but then we had to e had our season delayed by e month.

So with us starting on Tue, May 4th are actually goingo playing 120 games, 60 at home and 60 on the road inr season will conclud on Sun, September 19th here at homt CocaCola Park.

So when it's going to certy be an interesting season fr pure baseball fans who comt and really follow the bigsy in and day out, they'll be seeing a lot of familiar opponents.

There was a big restructurn the league in the off seas, so fans will really get an opportunity to a lot of a familiar organizations.

But within this 120 game schedule, a lot of this was being put i place to the hp limit travel for these teas they try to be safe and tro be as best in regards to hg to travel from city to cit.

Now, Coca-Cola Park is noty known for baseball but alsr its food.

So what's the plan there?

What can guests expect GamI guess I'll tell you, you k, we're not you know, we're trying to make things as nl as possible.

So as I kind of said, earl, you know, if you're lookinr your favorite hotdog, your favorite burger, our food d beverage team has been worg really hard, creating a fun menu for this coming seaso.

So there will be some new d items that will be presentr fans when they come to the ballpark on Tuesday, May 4.

So and finally with that as well, too.

So your favorite Coca-Cola products and it's going tod it's kind of neat about its well, too.

That this year or so really gave us all a chance to Ontelaunee, of course, adhe to everything in a Covid-19 world, but also to challens as a staff to really come p with some new creative ide.

So Lin Wood with food, buto to with our promotional schedule and all the fun sf that's going to be happenit the ballpark surrounding al the baseball action.

That's great.

To hear.

But with food, of course, y plans as to how you will enforce Mouskouri masks wie mandatory and the only time someone is to remove theirk is if they are in their set and they are eating or drinking.

Otherwise a mask has to ben even if you are singing yor song with your loved one So unless you are putting d in your mouth and putting drink, it's you have to wea mask at al times and it's n when waiting in line havino go use the restroom.

So masks are mandatory andt will be strongly enforced e fans are at the ballpark ad enjoying the ballpark experience.

Now the iron pigs are also known for their promotion.

So I don't know if anythins been released.

Can you share with us any insights on what that looks like?

Yeah, we were fortunate enh to release our promotional schedule earlier in the we.

So for those of you enjoy e bobbleheads, Green phase Zm call bobblehead giveaways s year.

We'r also to at least to on up the season.

We're going to an opening t on Tuesday, May 4th.

We're going to be recognizg essential workers.

So whether they be doctors, nurses, front line health e workers, folks who work ind stores, you if you're front line worker, you are goingo be recognized in some way n Tuesday, May 4th.

So we're going to have a bg night opening night celebrn that we're really looking forward to.

We're also in light of thad a lot of the other fun sff, we're going to some celebry appearances throughout the season.

Dwyer Brown, who was a dadd Field of Dreams, will be cg out Zoom call ClipArt this year.

Some former Philly greats, Larry Bowa and Mitch Willis will be making appearancess well, too, throughout the season.

So we're going to have our Pfizer tonight.

We have some great theme nights.

So if you can get to our bg baseball .com for a full lt of our promotions and we're also to workingn some other specialty promotions that e not yet been announced butl certainly be exciting for s who are itching to get bact here to the ballpark.

I love to hear that there l be fireworks and we expect several fireworks nights.

Yes, we will be planning multiple fireworks nights.

We are it's funny with they the schedule is constructed this year, Monday is a universal off day here fore iron pigs and all teams in minor league baseball this year.

So we're fortunate enough e home on Memorial Day weeked and fortunate to be home on Labor Day weekend as well .

So those Sundayvening game, we're going to have some bg fireworks displays and noty with that as well, too, bun some Friday, some Saturday, we'll be having some firews nights.

So folks really like to eny good fireworks night at the ballpark.

You're going to see plentyf starting in May when we get rocking rolling.

Now, Coca-Cola Park is alsa site for the Phillies altee training site.

So what does that mean?

So I'm kind of like what I touched a little bit on earlier.

So in light of everything that's happened here with Covid-19 going bac to last season when Major League Baseball ended up having to play a 60 game schedule, ty pretty much went to primary the AAA affiliates because usually the triple-A affils are really close to the pat club.

But of course for us beinge in the Lehigh Valley Schuyl Apakan in Allentown, you k, we're a hop skip, jump away from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

And for these alternate si, why they were created essentially is that in ligf players getting injured ate major league level oof major league level oofcoura Covid-19 situation of plays where to get Covid these players would be getting pd up from the alternate sited would then hold up and participate in Philadelphid play with the Phillies.

So so it's where normally u seeing players and our pic, uniforms and whatever visis they're playing.

But we've seen plenty of Phillies red here at CocaCa Park.

So if you're a big time Phillies fan, that's why Io talked a little bit earlieo we're going three games tht are exhibition style games against the New York Yanken April 17th, April.

25th iMay 1st.

So I know we're eager to se these players in Giant Eags uniforms, but can't wait.

We know we can we know you can't fix baseball, .com ad you can come out and checkt some exhibition games.

Now, what's the protocol iy iron pigs players do get Cd or if there's a Covid outbk among a team, do you refund tickets or what does that k like?

It's funny in light of everything that's going, te are protoco that are still being discussed at this ti.

Major League Baseball is workingand in hand with th, with us.

But all teams across the country, all minor league s on discussing that if there were an outbreak with a te, that if there were a postpd game due to Covid-19, how d that go about?

So we're still waiting on e official guidelines from Mr League Baseball in regardso how we go about those protocols.

But it's certainly somethig that's in the forefront tht we're normally used to.

If w get a rain delay or ay anything in regards to wear that would cause us to postpone, ware certainly vy much well aware that coulda situation this year.

So we've been in working hd in hand with Major League Baseball on how to go about that if that were to be the case at all this year, Wel, thank you again for speakig with us.

I'm excited for the season.

We want to thank our guestr being with us today.

And we thank you for joinis for Community Update on Coronavirus will be here am each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on PBS39 and on the radi at nine 30 those same nights on WLVT News.

We'll be back Monday at for with more on vaccines in te fight against Covid-19.

If you have a question, yon leave it on our website, PBS39.org.

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